Prime Monthly gets customers all the benefits of Amazon Prime, including video streaming and free two-day shipping. It costs $12.99 per month.

Prime Yearly is the same as Prime Monthly but billed on an annual basis instead. It’s $99.00 per year, which is about $50.00 cheaper than Prime Monthly over the course of twelve months.

How easy is it to cancel your Amazon Prime subscription?

Amazon Prime customers can change or cancel their subscriptions at any time. If you do cancel, your services will continue until your paid time runs out. For example, if you paid for a year membership up-front and cancelled after three months, you could still use the benefits for those remaining nine months.

What other services do you get with Amazon Prime?

Unless you opt for the basic Prime Video subscription, you’ll get access to a host of benefits in addition to video streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription:

Netflix: You pay for the quality of content you want.

Netflix offers a few subscription options and pricing tiers. This allows customers to get only the features they need without paying for things they won’t use. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect from each option:

Basic

Standard

Premium

Price

$7.99 per month

$10.99 per month

$13.99 per month

HD Streaming

No

Yes

Yes

4K Ultra hD Streaming

No

No

Yes

Number of Simultaneous Devices

1

2

4

Netflix offers a one-month free trial on any of its tiers, so new customers can test-drive the service and see if it’s something they want to shell out cash for every month. And since there’s no contract or long-term commitment with Netflix, cancellation is a breeze. You can log in to cancel your subscription any time you want.

The Winner: Amazon Prime

Although Netflix’s pricing is competitive for how much content you can stream, the additional features and benefits you get with Amazon Prime make it a no-brainer in the value department. Video streaming coupled with free two-day shipping on anything under the sun is a convenience that’s hard to beat.

2. Content Availability

Amazon Prime: There’s plenty of family-oriented content.

Amazon has a wide selection of content, including an ever-expanding collection of original shows. While it doesn’t boast quite the same amount as Netflix, it’s growing. The selection also tends to rotate less often, which could be a big deal for some long-term users.

However, Amazon does beat out Netflix in children’s programming. Because of its licensing deals with Viacom (the company that owns Comedy Central and Nickelodeon), Amazon has a wide selection of comedies and kid shows. Netflix has made strides with recent original releases like Llama Llama, but Amazon Prime still has the lead. So, if you’re looking for a streaming service that’ll suit the whole family, Amazon Prime just might be it.

The Best TV Shows and Movies on Amazon Right Now

A selection of top titles, trending shows, and classic movies currently on Amazon Prime.

The Tick

Roseanne

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Nightcrawler

Superbad

The Sopranos

Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood

Dora the Explorer

Monk

Psych

Netflix: There’s an unbeatable selection of popular content.

Netflix generally offers the best content selection of any streaming provider, with more movies, TV shows, and original content than any other. Its original content is among the best of any streaming provider (but more on that later).

The biggest issue with Netflix’s selection is that non-original content tends to rotate out fairly frequently. While new shows are added often, it can be frustrating to have a favorite show removed from the lineup when you’re in the middle of watching it—it happened to us recently with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The Best TV Shows and Movies on Netflix Right Now

A selection of top titles, trending shows, and classic movies currently on Netflix.

The Godfather

Lincoln

The Office

Stranger Things

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Better Call Saul

Despicable Me 3

The Good Place

Cosmos

Planet Earth

The Winner: Netflix

Netflix still has more content than its competitors, and it’s quality content too. Amazon is catching up, though—and if you have kids, it may already have the lead.

3. Original Content

Amazon Originals: You might discover some up-and-coming favorites.

Amazon has greatly expanded its original content lately, and several shows have become both fan and critic favorites.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

This comedy-drama premiered in November 2017 and follows a housewife from New York City with a talent for stand-up comedy. It’s set in the 1950s, which brings an interesting dynamic to her untypical career pursuit. The series has received excellent reviews from both fans and critics.

This show stars Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May of the British car show Top Gear. The trio travel the world and present the show to live audiences on a “Grand Tour,” discussing automobiles.

Other popular Amazon Prime Originals:

Netflix Originals: Netflix is hard to beat when it comes to original content.

Netflix was one of the first streaming providers to produce its own original content, and it remains one of the best choices for great shows you won’t find anywhere else.

Stranger Things

Set in a small town in Indiana during the 1980s, Stranger Things follows the story of a young boy’s disappearance. This supernatural horror/drama has earned outstanding critic ratings and has quickly become a fan favorite.

Other popular Netflix Originals:

The Winner: Netflix

This may change as other streaming providers like Amazon Prime continue to gain footing with original content, but what Netflix offers currently tops the competition. Many of its original series have gained loyal followings, leading to renewed seasons year after year.

4. Streaming Quality

Amazon Prime: You don’t have to pay extra for high-quality video.

Amazon Prime offers both 1080p Full HD and 4K Ultra HD resolutions for streaming, as well as HDR video support. Unlike Netflix, both 1080p and 4K are included in the same package price. In other words, you don’t have to pay extra for 4K video, which is great. Considering how popular 4K is becoming, we predict it will likely become an expected standard in all plans.

In terms of audio quality, Amazon offers Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound, which outputs sound to five channels: left, right, center, left surround, and right surround. This is a standard surround-sound protocol, but it’s still nice to see here.

What devices does Amazon Prime Video work with?

Amazon Prime works with most streaming players, like Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV, as well as most web browsers. There are also apps available for Android and iOS, so you can stream on the go.

According to Amazon, Prime Video works on these devices:

Smart TVs

Blu-ray players

Set-top boxes (Roku, Google TV, TiVo, NVIDIA SHIELD)

Amazon Fire TVs

Fire TV Sticks

Game consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Wii)

Android devices (Prime Video app for Android phones and tablets)

iOS devices (Prime Video app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch)

Amazon Fire phones

Amazon Fire tablets

Netflix: High-quality streaming comes at a price.

Netflix offers 1080p and 4K Ultra HD video quality, but there’s a catch—you have to pay for it. Netflix’s various service tiers are primarily differentiated by two things: how many devices you can watch Netflix on at once (called simultaneous streams) and what maximum resolution you can stream in.

What devices does Netflix work with?

Netflix has been around a while, and it works on pretty much any smart device you can think of at this point. The company provides an extremely thorough page detailing all the devices you can stream on if you want to check it out, but rest assured that if you have a device and want to watch Netflix on it, there’s a really good chance you can.

The Winner: Netflix

Netflix has been in the streaming game for a while, and its experience shows. Although getting a higher-quality picture is easier with Amazon Prime, Netflix has the versatility and accessibility that’s enough to keep millions of streamers satisfied. Even still, it’s a close call.

5. Features and User Interface

Amazon Prime: It features easy-to-use categories with side-scrolling and robust parental controls.

Amazon Prime Video features a familiar interface with side-scrolling categories for content. You can dive deeper into a genre or search for specific titles if you already know what you want. The service will also make recommendations based on your viewing history.

Prime Video lets you select titles for offline viewing so you can watch without an internet connection. And, in keeping with its family-oriented theme, Amazon features robust parental controls to limit what your kids can watch.

If you need subtitles, Prime Video offers several language choices:

English

French

Italian

Spanish

German

Japanese

Portuguese

Netflix: You can create separate accounts for kids.

If it weren’t for the branding, you might get Prime Video and Netflix mixed up—the user interfaces are almost identical. The Netflix home page features recommendations and genres, with side-scrolling thumbnails for various titles. The specifics of the interface vary slightly depending on which device you’re streaming on, but they all follow a similar theme.

Netflix also allows offline viewing of select titles and provides strong parental controls, including the ability to set up a separate kid profile that shows only age-appropriate content.

Netflix also offers an impressive seventeen languages for viewing and subtitles, though not every title is available in every language. Here are some included options:

English

French

Spanish

Italian

Korean

Chinese

Arabic

German

Japanese

The Winner: Netflix

However, this one is really more of a tie. The services are very similar in everyday use and offer nearly identical features, but Netflix is available in more languages, which puts it slightly ahead for us.

6. The Verdict

Amazon Prime Video is the better service for families with young children. It also makes a lot of sense if you use Amazon for shopping regularly—the savings on shipping can pay for the service on its own, making the various other benefits, including Prime Video, more like free bonuses than paid services.

Netflix is generally the better service for people who are less concerned with kid-friendly programming and more concerned about elite original content. There are more original shows and movies, new content is added faster, and it works on more devices. That said, Prime Video is catching up—fast.

Our recommendation is to get both if you can. Every streamer should have a Netflix subscription—the original content is too good to pass up—and Amazon Prime comes with so many additional benefits that it’s a no-brainer for modern life. Plus, Amazon’s up-and-coming original content is excellent and promising for the future.

Subscribing to both services gets you each one’s unique benefits without settling, and if you add their monthly subscriptions to a fast internet package, you’re still likely to come in under the cost of a cable subscription. When you consider that you’d also miss out on a tremendous amount of original content and past episodes of popular shows with just a cable subscription, cable doesn’t look so great.

Ready to get started? Both services offer free trials, so you can experience what it would be like to cut the cord without any of the commitment.

The Winner: Get both Netflix and Amazon Prime if you can afford it.

If you need a faster internet connection for smoother streaming with less buffering, check out what internet packages are available in your area.